Our BR Diary, from start to finish......

philnicandamy

Hi Scarlett, just had a quick look through your posts...blimey great start already & a great organised attitude! keep up with the diary it can be an inspiration to people coming here for answers, when I started looking around back in Jan I came across things like your post here & to be honest gave me no end of information on what to expect in the lead up to the "big day"
...Bankruptcy can be such a huge rollercoaster of emotions but worth everything in the end


Take care & keep posting!

Phil

tigerfeet2006

Good luck with it all Scarlett. I'm sure that the 3 months will fly by.

Glad that the letting agent was positive as well.:T

Scarlett.1974

Thanks Philnicandamy and Tigerfeet


Wednesday 14th Nov.

Today I called the local council who deal with all the social housing in the area. We are on the list and am now eligable to 'bid' (express an interest in) properties. Every single one that we are eligable for had dozens of others bids on them, from people in higher bands than us (we're the lowest priority apparently :rolleyes: ) so it would definitely seem that private rental will be the only way forward for us. Some good news though - checked right move again and there's another 2 houses in our area that would be suitable just gone on, so I don't think we'll have too much trouble finding somewhere suitable. I did contact the estate agents who are marketing both of them last night to ask for some more info such as, length of tenancy and internal photos if possible but neither of them have got back to me yet, don't they want my business?! :rolleyes:

I do have a little concern though about private renting. The plan is to be in the rental property a couple of weeks before we go BR. Are we being really bad and immoral by not telling the estate agent / landlord that we're going BR? Could they, in theory, if they find out (if the OR tells the LL) immediately evict us? Even if we have paid 6 months rent in advance, as per the conditions they told me for people with less than perfect credit ratings?

SarahNeedle1872

If its any consolation, when OH and I started to look for our house, we registered with all the local EA - of which there are at least 6! - and not one of them got back to us!

Sarah x

Scarlett.1974

SarahNeedle1872 wrote: »

If its any consolation, when OH and I started to look for our house, we registered with all the local EA - of which there are at least 6! - and not one of them got back to us!

Sarah x

It's mad isn't it? I mean, don't these EAs want the business?!!

SarahNeedle1872

Scarlett.1974 wrote: »

It's mad isn't it? I mean, don't these EAs want the business?!!

I think its because they don't earn as much/any commission from a rental, but if u were looking to buy, I bet the story would be different!

Praxis99

Just one or two points based on my own experience of BR in Sept this yr:

(1) Bank Account

Might be a good idea to set up a Coop current account now, so that when you go BR you can quickly - presuming your account is managed OK in the meantime - move across to their Cashminder account. It will also mean easy transfer of any DD's or standing orders.

I did this a few months in advance of my own BR. On the day I went BR I visited a branch near the court explained I was now BR and wanted to set up a CashMinder. Since I was already a current account holder this was a painless process and it was all done - including sending me an Electron card - within a few days. Transferring my DD's then just required a short call to the Coop's tele banking service. Interestingly they didn't actually freeze my current account post BR but gave me notice of six weeks to make alternate arrangements which of course I had already done.

(2) Form Filling

Since you have internet access and presuming its secure I'd recommend filling the BR forms out Online. This has a number of benefits firstly it prompts you for info that is missing, you can save your data as you go and the final product been printed ensures its easy to follow and read by court and OR staff dealing with it.

Scarlett.1974

Thanks for your post Praxis99


Friday 16th Nov.

The secured loan company called yesterday, all concerned as to why they hadn't received this month's payment :rolleyes: H managed to fob them off on the phone by saying the DD mandate was in the post and they could collect 2 payments next month. Not sure if this was the right thing to do, but he said he just had a bit of a panic when they called.

I have this morning organised all our debt related paperwork into some sort of order. I bought a big A4 folder and have seperated everything into sections (a lovely stripy folder, all different colours, well........ if you're going to do a horrible job might as well try to make it a bit more pleasant ). This will make it much easier when it comes to filling in the BR forms and also to be able to give the OR any infomation he/she requires. The folder has now been christened "The Folder of Doom", which we thought was quite appropriate

My brother has told my mum that he is "rather disappointed" in us. Hmmm, yes, well so are we. This is not exactly the life plan we would have chosen :rolleyes:

Scarlett.1974

Monday 19th Nov. 2007

I've spoken to another couple of local Estate Agents this morning, 1 of which was really very helpful She said that they wouldn't require anything other than 6 months rent in advance to rent a property from them, no guarantor, references or anything else, so that's a bit of good news. The EA she works for have lots of houses for rent in the area we're looking for, so she's took my details and is going to email me with updates as from the middle of December (she said there was no point in doing it now really because we're not looking to move until the end of Jan) and she was very confident that something suitable will come up

Apart from that, nothing else to report really. Still haven't had a proper look at the BR forms, but promise I will this week The Folder of Doom is filling up nicely (2 more nasty letters on Saturday from Egg and Lloyds :rolleyes: ) and the "unofficial" savings account where we are stashing all "not paid any debt or mortage payments" money is filling up quite well, just over £1000 in there now We're going to need probably 4 x that much for when we move for rent in advance, bond, moving costs and BR fees, but anything we're short my lovely Mum will lend to us.

tigerfeet2006

All the best with it all Scarlet. You seem to be doing the right things just need to look at those forms

Can I ask how you made £285 on Quidco? I've managed £10 lol